Error Code :
No link found matching '//a(@href = "https://www43.friendsprovident.com/CAA/jsp/register_customer.jsp;jsessionid=0001xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx:xxxxxxxxxxx?targeturl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww88.friendsprovident.com%2Fmembersite%2Factivate%2FhaveNoCRN.jhtml" or @src="https://www43.friendsprovident.com/CAA/jsp/register_customer.jsp;jsessionid=0001xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx:xxxxxxxxxxx?targeturl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww88.friendsprovident.com%2Fmembersite%2Factivate%2FhaveNoCRN.jhtml")'

Actual HTML:

<a id="register" tabindex="106" href="/CAA/jsp/register_customer.jsp;j
+sessionid=0001xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx:xxxxxxxxxxx?targeturl=https%3A%
+2F%2Fwww88.friendsprovident.com%2Fmembersite%2Factivate%2FhaveNoCRN.j
+html"> Register</a>
[download]

Found @ : https://www43.friendsprovident.com/CAA/jsp/login.jsp;jsessionid=0001xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx:xxxxxxxxxxx?targeturl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww88.friendsprovident.com%2Fmembersite%2Flogin%2FMSLogin.jsp%3Fsite_id%3Dmembersite%26finaltargetURL%3Dhttps%3A%2F%2Fwww88.friendsprovident.com%2Fmembersite%2Findex.jhtml%26realmid%3D3DMS-UID

(Probably best found by navigating to https://www88.friendsprovident.com/membersite/ and then click login.)
The register link on the login page is what I'm trying demo $mech->follow_link

Using Code:

@arr =  $mech->find_all_links;
$link_obj = @arr[4];
[download]

Further on I have

eval    {$mech->follow_link( url => $link_obj->url, tag => $link_obj->
+tag) };
[download]

These two methods don't work consistently.

To respond to all of you in turn.

moritz: Ok. I do need to have the ability to navigate/edit javascript. That part I have covered.
micheal: Yes I've looked at the documentation. Yes having now gone through pretty much all the code for www::mechanize::firefox it is clear to me. The code i've quoted is reasonable and logical. The documentation only needs one extra line to point out that follow_link will not necessarily work with the links found by find_all_links. Or if I understand the code follow_link will search the html while find_all_links will refer to the DOM, which is not documented.
anonymous monk: This is really aggressive! I'm just asking a question. 1. mechanize::firefox doesn't exit. ANS you are pedantic. 2. terms of service. I don't want to scrape either website. I fact i don't want to scrape any website, certainly not any that i don't have permission to. Both websites cited here are only mentioned so i can show the problem. 3. API db access. That is just aggressive and unhelpful. 4. The documentation could be a little clearer on the follow_links section. 5. submit a patch. sure no problem. This is my fifth day learning perl, so once i have the skill I would be very happy to help improve the code. 6. say something meaningful. www::mechanize::firefox is a super piece of work, it is very slick. I'm only quibbling about a small element, because I would like others to use this cool software and would not like them to get confused as i did.

bottom line is find_all_links returns objects which are then not usable with follow_link. This is not what I would expect.
Rolf: Cheers but no that is not the problem. It is not a question of the data being unavailable. I can access the data.

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